GMAT Strategy

Little discouraged over here. Been studying for the GMAT for about 2.5 months now. I average about 7-8 hours a week of study time. I originally took a practice test and got a 510. 30 on math (26th percentile) and 30 on verbal (54th percentile). Math has always been my weakness. About 3 weeks ago I took another practice test and got a 430. 24 on the math (13th percentile) and 26 on the verbal (43rd percentile).

Clearly I'm doing something wrong. Been studying using Magoosh. Going through a lot of the basics of math and doing practice questions. I just can't seem to get the practice questions correct.

Any ideas? Perhaps my math skills just aren't meant to be. I'm not worried about verbal at this moment as I haven't studied at all for it yet.

Clearly you are discouraged and the GMAT can be just that kind of ordeal.

The math skills necessary are those that many people have not used for years and as you have seen this can cause problems.

Going forward you are going to need to work just on the actual skills themselves for a while, rather than on GMAT questions. Until you get the essential skills down the questions may be out of reach.

I am also going to make a suggestion - You might try studying for the verbal. You say that you are frustrated and maybe on the verge of giving up. But if you were to work on the verbal and have some success there you might see that it can move your overall score a lot.

This might give you some motivation to get back at the Quant with a good idea of what kind of score you need to get on Quant. If your verbal score is quite high then you Quant score may not need to be as high.

Now I see that Rich has suggested the same things!

Thanks for the replies. Your assumption is correct. I have not studied verbal at all yet. Only quant in the past couple months. Perhaps switching over to verbal is a good idea. I'll try anything at this point!

My score goal is in the low 600's. The school I want to apply for has a minimum of a 500. So it appears they aren't too picky about the GMAT score.

I haven't scheduled my official GMAT yet. I was hoping to do it in mid to late June, though.

Hi there,

No offense intended, but of COURSE you aren't breaking the low 600's by completely ignoring half the exam! Verbal and Quant go together to make your scaled score. You can't have one without the other. It's a common mistake to "only" do Quant, and then "only" do Verbal. The most successful students I have tutored have maintained consistent study in both, side by side, always actively reviewing concepts, diagnosing weaknesses, and then actively tackling them. It sounds like you just need a serious study plan overhaul! When is your June test date?

My biggest question is HOW are you studying? What books are you using/have used, and HOW are you using them? Yes, you will want to go through as much reputable material in books like the OG and MGMAT, and perhaps Powerscore, etc as you have time for, but the VAST majority of your study time should be spent "reviewing" or logging and examining WHY you get questions wrong, WHAT concepts those questions are testing, and HOW your strategy should be adjusted to get similar questions correct in the future. Especially for Verbal, students simply do better when they can recognize "what" a questions is testing quickly, and can anticipate what a "correct GMAT answer" should looks like. Remember: the GMAT is not an intelligence test. It simply tests one thing: how familiar are you with the GMAT?

My study plan advice is: compile a list of ALL the tested concepts, systematically review them, do 1 practice CAT each week, fully break each CAT down into an Error Log by concept tested, look for common themes in terms of WHY and HOW you get questions correct, then choose a MAXIMUM of SIX concepts each week to target for THOROUGH review. At the end of the week, take another CAT. Review, analyze, log, and choose/rotate six new concepts.

In addition, you need a MEMORIZED, INGRAINED strategy for EVERY question type (DS, PS, SC, CR, and RC) that you do for EVERY question, utilizing your scratch pad for maximum efficiency. This is what I work on with 90% of my tutoring students. So my questions to you are:

-what 3 Verbal Q-types do you get wrong the most often? Why?
-what is your relationship to your scratch pad?
-what 3 Quant concepts do you get wrong the most often? Why?
-what types of questions throw you off your pacing?
-how do you keep track of pacing within each section?
-what is your strategy for each Quant and Verbal question type?
-how do you adjust your strategy for each Verbal CR type (for example, how do you approach a Bolded statement Q as opposed to a Weaken Q)?
-how does your approach to DS and PS questions differ?
-what is the difference between a Value and a Y/N Data Suff in terms of what a correct statement will do?

I hope you find some of this helpful! If you'd like to discuss GMAT strategy further, you can reach me at [email protected]. I offer daily sessions via Skype at the rate of $50/hr. You can also find free advice on my blog: www.gmatrockstar.com.

Good luck to you!

Best,
Vivian

Thanks for the input. I'll focus on these and see if they help.

Great information from all, and Vivian has some excellent thoughts. It is crucial to balance your prep on both Verbal and Quant and have ingrained strategies for all the different types.

It might make sense to do additional self-study along with the Magoosh videos. If you are looking for in depth guidance and clear, powerful schedules to follow for that, check out my book GMAT Clarity (amazon link).

And don't give up! You are just scratching the surface with prep.

Little update. Took another CAT this past weekend and ended up with a 520 (31Q and 30V).

I've started creating an error log to see what I'm doing wrong. I do tend to have trouble with word problems still. Making the jump from words --> variables --> equations is hard!

I feel like I'm getting better at Verbal. Even though my score doesn't reflect it for some reason.

Time isn't an issue as I usually finish with 10-15 minutes left.

I scheduled my GMAT for June 28th.

After analyzing the CAT. I ended up with the following..

Quant:
15 DS questions... 11 correct/4 incorrect
21 PS questions... 6 correct/16 incorrect

Verbal:
15 SC questions... 6 correct/9 incorrect
12 RC questions... 7 correct/5 incorrect
14 CR questions... 8 correct/6 incorrect


The quant conclusion is that my PS is terrible. Verbal conclusion isn't quite as clear, though. I did think that SC was my strongest part of verbal but I guess not. Any ideas?

In an effort to help my PS skills, would anyone suggest taking the Manhattan GMAT Foundations of Math workshops I and II?

I just struggle so much with the quant and I get frustrated as I often don't know where to start on a problem.

ceilidh.erickson wrote:

ethanjbeau wrote: Time isn't an issue as I usually finish with 10-15 minutes left.

I have to disagree - this tells time is very much an issue!

Some high-level scorers (in the 700+ range) may find that they can move through verbal with time to spare, but very few people - even experts - finish the quant section with time to spare and score in the top percentiles. It's just too difficult a test to be flying through!

If you're finishing with that much time to spare on each section, you're not being careful enough. It's likely that you're jumping to easy conclusions, or reading so quickly that you misread the question.

Here's the way to slow down and take your time. On the quant, before you pick up the pen, go through this mental checklist:
- what concept is being tested?
- what is the question asking for?
- are there any built-in tricks?
- what are my options for solving?

Act like you're teaching the problem to someone else. Then, pick up the pen and solve.

On the verbal, ask yourself:
- what kind of question is this?
- did I think about the principle being tested, or did I just rely on my ear/intuition?

Keeping an error log is the best way to identify the mistakes you're making, and what you can do to improve. Then on practice tests, CALM DOWN and approach each problem with Zen-like remove.

Thank you for the advice. I think I end up finishing with so much extra time on the quant because if I don't know how to solve a problem (or know where to start) I guess after 30 seconds and move on rather than waste my time. Looking at my quant score, though, you can probably tell I do that often.

Verbal I will try to slow down and think more about the issue I'm being tested on. I do understand the underlying concepts better in verbal than in quant. It's always been more of my strength. Unfortunately, I feel many B-schools want the opposite (stronger quant). The school I'm applying to has a 500 minimum on the GMAT and I think the average accepted grad student had a 580 last year. The school is in the top 40-50 ranking.
________

On a completely different note. I have the MGMAT series of books. Specifically the ones focusing on fractions, decimals, percents, number properties, algebra, geometry, and word problems. Does anybody have any suggestions about where to find extra questions to practice on for those specific topics? I have the OG13 but the questions are all scattered. I guess I'm looking for an easy place to find questions specifically related to those topics so I can practice after I go through the book.

Decided to slow down a little bit on my second CAT. Ended up finishing the quant with about 3-4 minutes left vs 15min+ on the first.

CAT1 = 520 37% - 31Q(25%) 30V(58%)
CAT2 = 530 39% - 32Q(28%) 31V(60%)

My GMAT is scheduled for the 28th of this month. Should I expect to get somewhere in that range on test day? I really want a 560-580 but given the CATs and only a week to go before the exam that may not be realistic at this point. Clearly my quant abilities are dragging my score down.

Any suggestions on what I should focus on?

Took my GMAT today with the following results.

IR - 4/37%
Q - 29/20%
V - 33/69%
Total - 530/38%


I guess it was what I was expecting for a score. Although I did slightly worse in Quant and slightly better in Verbal in comparison to my CATs.

What now? Looks like Quant is really where I need to focus. As I am during the quant section of the CATs, I find myself usually pretty confused. I tend not to write things down often because I don't know exactly what I need to write down and/or how to figure out the problem. I ended up filling only 2-3 pages of the provided scratch booklet.

My new goal is in the low to mid 600's. Better luck next time I guess.